Basketball
Fitting climax to Charlie Brown Classic
By Stan Ross
HOPING FOR A POINT. York's Kayla Swasey (4) and Anna Swietek (1) wait for a free-throw to drop in last Sunday's final at the Charlie Brown Tournament at York High School.
Photo by Steve Rasche
TO THE HOOP. York's Alexa Bando drives to the hoop in the finals of the Charlie Brown Tournament.
Photo by Steve Rasche
Irrepressible announcer Sal Sala and his sidekick Dennis Dorey also selected a most valuable player from each team to receive the coveted DARE pencil award.
York Police Department School Resource Officer Scott Cogger and his active crew of volunteers had again delivered a well-run tournament, but the real winners are the town's DARE program and Bog Road Playground project, the recipients of funds from this year's event.
Typical of the play throughout was the girls' fifth- and sixth-grade York team that had come from eight points down to defeat Falmouth in a second-round game and then had all they could handle in the championship playoff.
Falmouth took the early lead, but Emily Campbell (team high 15) evened the score at 6-6 with a put-back, and Kayla Swasey gave York the lead, 8-6, at the quarter when she went end-to-end for a lay-up.
Leigh Wyman countered for Falmouth with a block and seven points in the first half. Marquis MacGlashing answered for York with three the hard way when she converted after being fouled on a put-back. Falmouth led 13-12 at the quarter and continued to lead, 24-21, at the half. Then Ruby Cribby fed a long pass to Campbell for a breakaway bucket. MacGlashing and Campbell scored on put-backs, but Casey Honan drained a trey from the top and Anna Hickey scored on a free-throw with 9.2 seconds to play to give Falmouth a 36-35 win.
Because each team had one loss, tournament rules called for a "five-minute mini-game" to determine the winner. York scored first on a pair of free throws by Cribby and a slash to the hoop by Swasey. Falmouth countered when Hickey drained a shot from the corner. Then, with just seconds remaining, Campbell scored the winning points on a pair of free-throws and York won the playoff 6-5.
Campbell received the highly coveted DARE Pencil MVP Award for York while Casey Honan was selected MVP for Falmouth.
In the boys' fifth- and sixth-grade division. the Dover Recreation team fought its way back from the losers' bracket to face the undefeated South Portland Hoops. The Hoops, led by Cal. Carr with 17 points, including three treys, battled hard but lost to Mike LeBlanc (game high 26) and the Dover Recreation team, 51-50, in regulation. Then in the "mini playoff game" the Hoops, paced by Connor MacVane with three hoops and four free-throws by Carr, outscored Dover, 12-7, to win the championship. Carr was chosen MVP for the Hoops and Billy Carroll was MVP for Dover.
Another upset in the boys' seventh- and eighth-grade division found Oyster River coming out of the losers' bracket to defeat Seacoast Rigazio, 35-27, in regulation and again, 5-2, in the mini playoff game to win the championship. Adam Goodwin, with a team high of 14, was the MVP for Oyster River while Duncan Robinson, with a game high of 15, including three treys, was the MVP for Seacoast.
The Seacoast Slam, an AAU group including four York girls, walked through the girls' seventh- and eighth-grade division with three straight wins including a 58-15 blowout in the final over the Wolfeboro Wolfpack. Niki Taylor had a game high 12 points for the Slam and Catie Keenan and Stephanie Gallagher each added eight. Alexa Balboni was given the MVP award for the Slam and Kayla Denison received it for the Wolfpack.
The boys' third- and fourth-grade divisions had Deerfield fighting back from the losers' bracket to upset Marshwood, 21-18, in regulation and force a playoff. Led by MVP Zachary Quintal, Marshwood won the playoff 4 to 2 to clinch the championship. Bret Hanson was selected MVP from Deerfield.
The Falmouth girls went wire to wire to win their third- and fourth-grade division and clinched the championship with a 20-12 win over Barrington. Sydney Morang was selected MVP for Falmouth and Caitlin Foley won the coveted award for Barrington.
Hats off to Officer Cogger for another well-run tournament!
